Great Horned Owl update

Adult Great Horned Owl photo

from www.share3.esd105.wednet.edu

via Google Images

Great Horned Owls have been heard hooting almost every evening for the past month around the White Memorial Main Area. Their territorial activity has been centered along the Interpretive Trail behind Pike Marsh, but they have also been heard hooting from the trees right in front of and behind the Museum and from Pine Grove 2. Right now I can hear them hooting from the Interpretive Trail. Another pair can often be heard answering them from the Pine Island Complex to the north. Recently these local owls have also become more visible. A little while ago the Interpretive Trail pair was seen perched in White Pine trees at the intersection of the White Hall Rd. driveways about 500' east of the Interpretive Trail. Yesterday they were seen perched in the White Pine trees at Pine Grove 2. One of them flew towards the Museum. In past years when these birds made themselves more visible it meant that nesting was imminent. They will usually find an old crow or hawk nest; preferably in a White Pine tree. It can be amazingly close to human activity, and can be amazingly well-hidden. They will also occasionally nest in the top of a broken off "chimney" tree, or in a large cavity in a tree. The Interpretive Trail pair has most often been found using an old crow nest at least 30' up in a thick, live White Pine tree. They are most active and vocal between 5 and 6 p.m. If you come out to look for them please do not disturb them with tape playback of their calls, and please don't approach them. Sometimes they seem tolerant of humans, but they can be disturbed rather easily. They also have been known to attack humans that approach a nest tree too closely. Please email us a report if you encounter these birds.

Early Spring Migrant Birds

Canada Geese photographed at

Bantam Lake by Bob Stanowski

Eastern Bluebird photographed at

White Memorial by Bob Stanowski

It may be February 25th, and it may only be 34 degrees outside with a cold rain, but some birds are migrating back to and through Connecticut, anyway. Most of these early birds are short distance migrants that spent the winter in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia. The previous blog post of mine touched upon some of these birds, along with an unusually early American Woodcock. Since then, more of the "regular" early spring migrants have arrived or increased in number. Chief among these are blackbirds, bluebirds, and Canada Geese. Even though White Memorial's Museum feeders have hosted up to 12 Red-winged Blackbirds all winter, we now can safely say that the migrants are here. The numbers around the Museum have increased somewhat, there are now a few at the Bantam Lake Outlet, and a mixed flock of 60 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles has joined the European Starlings at Arethusa Farm. Eastern Bluebirds had been scarce around White Memorial during January and the first half of February, but we counted a combined total of approximately 25 around the Museum Area, along Webster Rd., and at the Bantam Lake Outlet for the Great Backyard Bird Count this past long weekend. This count only produced about 300 Canada Geese and 75 Mallards at the Bantam Lake Outlet. These have been typical numbers all winter. Therefore, it is highly likely that many of the 1210 Canada Geese, 155 Mallards, 34 American Black Ducks, and 16 Common Mergansers that I counted there last evening were newly arrived migrants. It should be noted for anyone visiting the Outlet that the number of birds is a lot lower in the morning and throughout much of the day because many of them go elsewhere to feed, and many of the new arrivals that have migrated all day don't settle in until evening. It is quite a spectacular sight to see wave upon wave of geese coming in to land in this relatively small area. If you wish to witness this yourself in the next week or so, you should park off N. Shore Rd. near Pt. Folly, and either walk to the Pt. Folly observation platform or walk down N. Shore Rd. to the Outlet bridge. High snow banks are currently making it impossible to park at the Outlet bridge.

Another Dead Deer Carcass Found on the Property

Deer Carcass Found at Cat Swamp Winter 2011
Photo By Anne Batterson

Another deer carcass was found on the property.  Roger Johnson, a White Memorial employee, was harvesting trees north of Beaver Pond and saw loads of coyote tracks leading to a deer carcass.  This brings us to a total of 7 deer carcasses found on the property, so far this year.  We are not sure if this amount of mortality is different from the average amount of mortality each year because we don't monitor this population metric.  The amount of mortality may be greater this year because of the extreme winter conditions that we are experiencing, in addition to the average amount of mortality that our White-tailed Deer population experiences over most years.  But on the other hand, their might be the same or less amount of mortality this year with respect to previous years.  One possible mechanism that could cause this is the deep snow hindering the movement of White-Tailed Deer may reduce the number of times they cross roads, thereby reducing the number of animals being hit by vehicles.  Since we do not monitor this population metric, it is impossible for us to say.  So always be on the lookout for deer carcasses on the property and report them to us.  As well as, always keep your eyes on the road when driving to avoid hitting white-tailed deer.

Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources 2011 - RegOnline

For those of you who are interested in registering for the Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources on March 7 at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. Click this link: Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources 2011 - RegOnline  Deadline for early registration is February 28, 2011. 

See you there!

I'll be the guy standing in front of the crayfish poster!

Early American Woodcock & other birds on 2/18/11

American Woodcock photo from

http://www.jczinn.com/

On Friday, 2/18/11, Jim Kandefer, Mike Amodeo, and I censused several parts of White Memorial for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We came up with fairly good numbers of most of the expected species around the Museum Area, Pike Marsh, Bantam Lake Outlet, and N. Shore Rd. This included 4 Wood Ducks at the Outlet, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Museum feeders, and a total of about 25 Eastern Bluebirds. We ended the day with a successful hour and a half of counting along Webster Rd., including Catlin Woods and Miry Brook Marsh. Arethusa Farm yielded a large mixed flock of blackbirds that included about 50 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles with 500+ European Starlings. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the American Kestrel that we saw there on Wednesday. Heading back into Catlin Woods we heard a Great Horned Owl hooting from the area of the intersection of White's Woods and Webster Roads. Then we were astounded to hear an American Woodcock giving its "peent" call from Miry Brook Marsh. After a few "peents" it picked up and flew around the marsh before settling back down and resuming "peenting". Then it lifted off, flew around the marsh, up Webster Rd. over our heads, and northbound over Catlin Woods. We didn't hear it again after that. I think that this is only the third time that I've encountered a woodcock as early as February in the Litchfield/Morris area. Right after the excitement of finding this bird had subsided I started whistling for Northern Saw-whet Owls. We have found these birds quite regularly in Catlin Woods in mid and late February. After about 2 minutes of intermittent whistling we heard a Saw-whet answer from the north side of the road in the thick hemlocks. We saw it fly among the sapling-sized trees and then disappear. Not wanting to subject it to any more disturbance or being preyed upon by the Great Horned Owl, we stopped whistling and left it alone. When I get all of the results from our GBBC counters compiled, I'll post them in a future bog.

Anatomy Lesson of White-tailed Deer Video

I took a closer look at the deer carcass in the Big Cathedral area.  Take a look at this video.  Directed By Gerri Griswold.

~11:30 a.m.  We received reports from the CT DEP Environmental Conservation Police Sargent Keith Schneider that there are a total of 6 dead White-tailed Deer reported on the property over the past 2 months.  

More sightings from yesterday's Webster Rd. walk

Turkey Vulture photo from northshoreinfoblog.com

via Google Images

My last posting highlighted the American Kestrel that we saw on our group's walk along Webster Rd. yesterday. However, that wasn't the only notable species that we saw. Within seconds of seeing the Kestrel a member of our group who was still scanning the sky spotted something much larger and darker. When I got my binoculars on it I identified it as a Turkey Vulture. This is the first one for White Memorial in 2011, and arrived it right on target with usual first date of arrival for this species here. It headed due east, so I'm sure that the second one which appeared a few minutes later from the south and headed east was a different bird, as was the one that came in from the west a few minutes after that and headed north right over us. Since 3 deer have been found dead on the Property this week, and other dead ones may be out there, vultures may be able to find enough to eat now that they are back. They also could dine on road-kill, like the Opossum that we encountered a little farther down the road. We also found a squashed Short-tailed Shrew, but I think that it was too flattened even for a vulture to eat. Back to the live stuff, but still on the subject of eating, we saw an interesting behavior as we were watching a group of Golden-crowned Kinglets in Catlin Woods. They kept going down to the snow on the ground, and were obviously picking up and eating things. Upon closer examination with my binoculars, and later with my eyes, I could see that they were eating Snow Fleas. Usually, we think of these birds as eating scale insects, adelgids, and various pupae and larvae from the leaves, needles, and bark of trees, but this observation shows that they will take advantage of whatever insects or other invertebrates that they can find. In that same area, as well as farther east along the road, we also saw Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Brown Creepers foraging for insects in various ways among the trees and shrubs. This may very well have been due to an increase in invertebrate activity brought on by the sun's warmth and rising temperatures. This is something for people to remember when looking for birds in the winter or any other cool time: go to places in the sunshine. That's why it is often productive to look for birds on east facing slopes in the morning and west facing slopes in the afternoon.

February 2011 Monthly Volunteer Meeting Recap




River Otter Tracks at Cranberry Pond in Late December 2010.
Photo By James Fischer

 
Last night several folks (a total of 14) came out to catch up with the program's current events and to share their observations while helping on the property.  We began with some announcements. 

1. Wetland Bird Callback Survey and Frog Call Survey Workshop on March 19.  We are combining both surveys into one protocol.  Last year we initiated the Frog Call Survey but the season became too warm earlier than we had anticipated so we missed the peak of frog calling activity.  Several species of wetland birds inhabit the property for the breeding season and as migratory stopover habitat, so we will orient you to these calls, too.  Details will be announced soon.  Check back at the Wildlife Monitor and Forum for further information. 
2. Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources is March 7 at the University of Connecticut, Main Campus in Storrs.  Please consider attending this conference because there will be many natural resource professionals presenting their original research performed in Connecticut.  James Fischer will be presenting a poster titled "An initial survey of crayfish (Order Decopoda) species inhabiting the White Memorial Foundation, Litchfield and Morris, Litchfield Co., Connecticut."  Check this link for more information http://www.ccnr.uconn.edu/ 

Several of our volunteers have been observing loads of meso-predators throughout the property, while some species that are traditionally observed are observed less this year.  White-tailed deer have been impacted by the deep snow so they are moving less to conserve energy, therefore their tracks are infrequently observed this year versus previous years.  Most of the meso-predators are having to move greater distances so that they can find food because most of the small mammals are living under the deep snow and are detected less.  Result of these subtle changes has been translated in our volunteer's observations on the property.  Meso-predators (bobcat, coyote, & red fox) tracks and sign are being observed throughout the property and consistently between each of the transects (a total of 19).  On the other hand, white-tailed deer spoor are observed less frequently by our volunteers even though they are distributed throughout the property.  Our Winter Track Transect Monitors logged a total of 65.5 cumulative hours of effort during the month of January!  The tracking conditions have been really challenging this year but they are all strapping on the snowshoes or lacing up the ski boots so that they can contribute their observations.  Kudos to all of them!

"Wildlife copes with the cold in many ways, experts say" The Litchfield News

http://www.foothillsmediagroup.com/articles/2011/02/16/litchfield/news/doc4d555fb1a5018854068954.txt

I was interviewed by Jenny Golfin of the The Litchfield News for this article about how wildlife survive winter.  I will post a follow-up blog entry to clarify the points. 

Jamie

A Walk Along Webster Rd., Through Catlin Woods

Group of Wildlife Watchers along Webster Rd.

photographed by Dave Rosgen

On Wednesday, 2/16/11, Dave Rosgen led a group of wildlife watchers along the entire length of Webster Rd., which runs between Rt. 63 and White's Woods Rd. This allowed us to view the mixed coniferous/deciduous forest that is Catlin Woods, the wetland complexes along Miry and Catlin Brooks, and the fields that belong to Arethusa Farm without slipping and sliding on ice and snow. When we started out, the only thing that we encountered were American Crows, but that soon changed as we approached the farm fields. We saw a large flock of European Starlings in flight. They were being pursued by an American Kestrel, which has become a rare species to find in Connectcut during the winter.

Male American Kestrel photo from Animal Planet Photos

Porcupines

Porcupine photo by Dave Rosgen

Porcupines are really neat rodents. The juvenile in the photo above, being held by WMCC Director of Administration and Development, Gerri Griswold, was found in poor condition by a Warren resident last week. It was brought to Gerri, who is also a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. It was seriously malnourished, may have been separated from its mother too soon last fall, and may have had other health problems. Despite a huge amount of effort by Gerri and fellow wildlife rehabilitator, Lois Melaragno, the porcupine died last night. Winter is a stressful time for most wildlife, and despite having a diverse diet of plant-type foods, porcupines can suffer from starvation. Their principle cause of mortality in Connecticut, however, seems to be roadkill. At least that is an obvious cause of death for ones that we who frequently travel roads in Winchester, Norfolk, Colebrook, Barkhamsted, and Hartland see. Those towns host more porcupines than towns further to the south. They are found in Litchfield, but almost all of the reports have come from north of Rt. 202. At least 4 have been seen dead on Rt. 202 in the past few years. The closest one to White Memorial was near the State Police barracks. As yet, none have been documented as occurring on our Property, even though we have plenty of suitable habitat. Besides the ones found dead on Rt. 202, there have been a few reports from the northern part of Litchfield and various parts of Harwinton and Burlington, and one report, each, from Watertown and Rt. 109 near the Morris/Thomaston town line. Are we just missing them at WMF? Winter is a good time to look for them, as they leave a trough through the snow as they move. Care must be used in identifying their presence this way because raccoons and opossums will make a trough through deeper snow, too. A picture of porcupine trough is shown at the top of the post.

Flying Squirrels in the Attic

James Harmon, a White Memorial employee, found this Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans) skull in the Carriage House attic.  I want to show you some of the features that helped us distinquish this skull from other squirrel species.  It is recommended that you use calipers to record measurements, but in this blog entry rather than emphasizing the measurements I want to clue you into the characters that we like to use in the field.  Further analysis is always best when you compare and contrast several skulls from known species, which are conserved at natural history collections.

The first thing that told us it was rodent was that it had only two front teeth with a large gap, where the canine teeth would have been located, before the rest of the cheek teeth (premolars and molars).  The red line delineates the total length of the skull.  The cheek teeth are rooted and several other subtle characters allowed us to focus on the tree squirrel species that live in this area. 

The yellow circles at the beginning of the cheek teeth delineate the presence of very small premolars, this character distinguishes Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) from flying squirrels.  The total length of the skull tells us it is a Southern Flying Squirrel from a Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus).

Cedar Waxwings

Cedar Waxwing photographed by

Bob Stanowski using Digiscope

This past Saturday, 2/5/11, while going down to the Bird Observatory behind the Museum to fill the feeders, Samantha Foster and I heard, and then saw, a group of Cedar Waxwings perched in the Mountain-ash tree near the Observatory's door. Unfortunately for them, all of the berries had been eaten off of this tree last fall by Cedar Waxwings, American Robins, Gray Catbirds, Northern Flickers, and other frugivores. That was also the last time that we saw any decent sized flocks of waxwings. According to our records stored in ebird, the highest number of waxwings reported on the Property last year was a flock of 90, seen one day in September. After that, October's high count dropped to 32, November's to 17, and December's to 8. They were reported 35 times in September, 26 in October, 13 in November, and only once in December. We didn't see any on the Property last month. Given the lack of berries remaining anywhere around here this winter, we doubt that we will see this species much this month. The flock that we saw took us by surprise, as I wasn't expecting them, given the lack of food. They didn't stay above us for long. The whole flock, which ended-up consisting of 20 birds flew to the big Norway Maple in the Activity Field, then back around over us, then off to the south. They could be in New Jersey by now.

Common Ravens

Common Raven photo by Ralph Kerr

from http://www.rrbo.com/ via Google Images

While marking locations for safer places for duck nest boxes (see a previous post about this) this past Monday, 1/31, Scott Dayton and I encountered very few birds and mammals in Catlin Woods and Marsh. One species that made its presence known with its distinctive raucous call was the Common Raven. We heard the first one as we re-entered the woods from the marsh. Soon we heard and then saw a second one. They flew from treetop to treetop and then around overhead. The presence of 2 together in suitable breeding habitat in late January could indicate a pair establishing a breeding territory. In the case of Catlin Woods it would probably be re-establishing a territory, as a pair of these birds were encountered here on 2 of our breeding bird census visits last year. At other times last year they were found at Cranberry and Little Ponds, and various other places in between. Common Ravens have large territories, so it is quite likely that this pair claims this entire area. Though they usually nest on ledges and cliffs, they will nest in the tops of tall White Pine and Hemlock trees when their preferred nesting microhabitat isn't available. We have found nesting evidence for this species on our miniscule ledge microhabitat at Plunge Pool and the Solnit Parcel, but I also found an active nest with young in the top of a tall White Pine tree along the Duck Pond Trail a few years ago. Since there are plenty of tall evergreen trees in Catlin Woods, this probably would make a good nesting place for them. We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open for indications of them when we are out there over the course of the next few months. They are usually early-nesters, with building activity occuring in February and March. They could even be incubating eggs by late March if the weather becomes favorable. They would then be likely to be found around the area for the rest of the year. This species has undergone a dramatic population increase and range expansion in southern New England, beginning in the early 1980's. They can now be found with regularity throughout Connecticut, with White Memorial being one of the more reliable places to find them. Besides Catlin Woods and Marsh, I also suggest our Sawmill Field, N. Shore Marsh, Pt. Folly, Little Pond, and Apple Hill as being places to look for them. Please let us know if you find them.

Dave Rosgen Explaining the Great Backyard Bird Count

Video directed by Gerri Griswold

http://www.birdcount.org/

Latest Edition of the Research and Conservation Forum

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